Duffy fights burden on our small banks

Sean Duffy

EDITOR: Leaders of the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups and the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group recently wrote a column critical of U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Weston, and his efforts to bring accountability to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Their column misrepresented Duffy's bill, H.R. 3193, the Consumer Financial Freedom and Washington Accountability Act.

Duffy's bill recently passed in the House on a bipartisan vote and it does several things. It would replace the position of director at the bureau with a bipartisan five-member commission, which would provide needed checks and balances on the CFPB's extremely broad authority. Currently, funding for the bureau comes not from Congress, but from the Federal Reserve. Funding CFPB through Congress, like other agencies, would make the agency accountable to the people via their elected officials.

A rapidly growing federal regulatory burden on financial institutions has many negative effects on consumers, such as fewer loan products to choose from, more paperwork and increased costs. Duffy recognizes that when Washington puts unnecessary compliance burdens on Wisconsin's local financial institutions, the consumers on Main Streets throughout northern Wisconsin are the ones negatively affected in the end. Duffy's bill is just one example of his efforts to bring accountability and transparency to the regulatory process in Washington.